Steve Duplantis

Early Wednesday morning, just north of Torrey Pines Golf Course in Del Mar, CA, Steve Duplantis was hit by a taxi cab and died on the scene. When I first heard this story, I knew only that a unnamed PGA caddie had been in an accident. Steve Duplantis was one of only five caddies that I probably could have listed off the top of my head (Stevie, Fluff, Bones, Asbestos...)

The reason that Duplantis was larger than life to me was from Alan Shipnuck's book, Bud, Sweat and Tees: A Walk on the Wild Side of the PGA Tour. It's a phenomenal book, available from Amazon here. Originally published in 2001, it got much notoriety after Rich Beem won the PGA Championship in 2002. Simply put, it's a great look at the behind the scenes lives of players and caddies trying to cut it on the Tour (side note: it's the book I was talking about on Torrey Pines North #5 this past Monday when referencing the set up the Beemer had paying his expenses).

Alan wrote a great piece following Duplantis' death. It can be found here.

"He was a throwback to an earlier, livelier era when professional caddies were a fun-loving, hard-living bunch. As big money changed the nature of the profession in the last decade, Steve had struggled to find his place, unable to hold down a steady bag. No doubt his reputation for partying didn't help. But as often as Steve was fired through the years, he had no shortage of friends on Tour. He had a good heart and it was impossible not to like him, no matter how often he screwed up."